Benjamin Franklin/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby. Tim is looking in a bathrrom mirror and having trouble balancing a coonskin cap on his head. Moby laughs. MOBY: Beep! TIM: What's so funny? MOBY: Beep! Beep! Moby laughs and falls down. TIM: I don't care, I think-- I think it's cool. MOBY: Beep. Moby gives Tim a letter. Tim reads from the typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, When was Ben Franklin president? From, Linda. An image shows Benjamin Franklin. TIM: Well, Benjamin Franklin was never the President, but he's considered one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. The image expands to show Franklin with two other Founding Fathers. TIM: He was an accomplished writer, printer, inventor, diplomat, and scientist. Images illustrate what Tim lists. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, he was a really busy guy. TIM: Franklin was born in Boston in 1706, to a huge family; Benjamin was the 15th child in the Franklin house! An image shows a baby Franklin being held by his mother. She is standing with his father and siblings. TIM: By the age of 15, Ben was already writing articles for his brother James' newspaper, The New-England Courant. An image shows a newspaper article Franklin wrote. TIM: At 17, he traveled to Philadelphia, then London, to complete his training as a printer. A map shows the route from Boston, to Philadelphia, and to London. TIM: After returning to Philadelphia a few years later, he took over a newspaper called The Pennsylvania Gazette. An image shows Franklin standing outside his newspaper office. MOBY: Beep? TIM: Oh, he was just getting started. Over the next few decades, Ben Franklin wrote Poor Richard's Almanack, a best-selling collection of witty sayings, poems, and information about weather, astronomy, and astrology. An image shows Poor Richard's Almanack. TIM: He invented the Franklin stove and bifocal glasses, made the first maps of the Gulf Stream, and proved that lightning was a form of electricity. Illustrations show the Franklin stove, bifocals, and a map. An animation shows lightning striking a kite Franklin is flying in a rainstorm. The electricity runs down the kite string to a key attached at the end of it. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Right. Ben Franklin's best known for the role he played in the American Revolution. He was one of the five members of the Declaration Committee, which drafted the Declaration of Independence. Images show Franklin with four other members of the committee and the Declaration of Independence. TIM: And he went to France at the start of the Revolutionary War to gain support for the American colonies. A map shows Franklin’s trip to France in 1776. First, on a ship sailing from Philadelphia to Auray, France, and then on land from Auray to Paris. TIM: It was in France that Franklin gained his reputation for wearing a coonskin cap. An image shows Franklin wearing a coonskin cap, talking to a French man and woman. TIM: In 1783, the war ended, and Franklin helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris with England. An image shows an American hand shaking a British hand, with American and British flags in the background. TIM: Later he served in the Constitutional Convention, where the U.S. Constitution was drafted. An image shows the U.S. Constitution. TIM: And in 1790, as president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, he urged Congress to end slavery in the United States. An image shows Franklin snarling at a slave auction. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, he was always ahead of his time. He died in 1790, at the age of 84, just a couple of months after he sent that petition to Congress. Moby removes the coonskin cap from Tim's head and places it on his own head. Moby has no problem balancing it on his head. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah. That's what I thought.Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Science Transcripts